The Science Fiction about Robotic Mission - Essay Example

The Science Fiction about Robotic Mission Introduction The space exploration and events have profound effects on the environment and even to the astronomers who are aboard the spacecraft. The effects are profound ranging from the dangers of the chemicals that are used in manufacturing the rockets; energy used to manufacture these space navigation tools, as well as the carbon dioxide that they pump into the atmosphere (Sekii, Appourchaux, Fleck & Turck-Chièze, 2015). The journey to explore the outer space has not only been limited or restricted to exploring the other planets and the moon, but there are some tremendous efforts that astronomers have always made towards the exploration of the sun. In particular, the sun has been studied to explore sun’s features link the black-holes that space exploration has revealed as fascinating blacks spots to which no information exists and it is believed that even information cannot escape from them (Gao, Sun & Jing, 2014). As such, a journey to the exploration of the sun and its obits also has some profound effects on the environment since the space activities pass through important or crucial transitional areas above the atmosphere including the ozone layer whose interference has the potential of jeopardising the entire environmental characteristics of the earth’s atmosphere (Lilenstern & Bornarel, 2005). Therefore, this science-fiction story explores the journey to the sun to explore black holes and as such discusses some of the effects of such events on the earth’s environment. The Sun The solar system is a collection of many stars orbited by planets, but the most prominent feature is the sun as undoubtedly the largest object within the solar system. The visible layer of the Sun is the photosphere, with the temperatures as high as 6,000 degrees Celsius (Lilenstern & Bornarel, 2005). The solar energy is created within the sun’s core where the conditions favour nuclear reaction. At the sun’s core, the nuclear reaction causes the fusion of hydrogen nuclei thus forming helium nucleus or an alpha particle. The resulting alpha particle is almost 0.7% less dense than the initial four protons and the differences in these masses is what get expelled as the energy carried out to the earths surface through the process of convection, released as heat and light (Lilenstern & Bornarel, 2005). The energy generated from the core of the earth takes million years to reach out the surface. As such, after every second, 700 million mass of the hydrogen get converted into the helium ashes (Lilenstern & Bornarel, 2005). However, these actions or reactions in the sun have been studied through space exploration events through which the unique black holes were discovered and since then, space journeys have always been conducted in a bid to find more information of the events and the objects surrounding the sun. The Journey to Outer space to explore black holes around the sun What is known of the events and occurrences in the outer space are due to the robotic missions that scientists and astronomers have conducted over the past few years. In particular, this science-fiction story is a robotic mission to explore the outer space. The journey is like the folklore story of the Romans trying to study and make something out of Mars or the red planet. Their journey would be a simple viewing of the Mars, using kaleidoscopes, but their exploration would be limited to having a view of the Mars planet. However, with the advancement in technology and through space navigation, humanity has many various journeys to the outer space to explore the existence of life (Bagdigian, Carrasquillo, Metcalf & Peterson, 2012). As we embarked on a robotic journey to the outer space, the question that lingers in the crew’s mind is how far the modern society can go as far as space exploration is concerned. As the pioneer Russian space theorist once coined, the earth is the humanitys cradle but the question that linger in every scientists mind is that humanity cannot live in this cradle forever (Lilenstern & Bornarel, 2005). Therefore, our journey is driven by two themes; exploration of the existence of life beyond the planet and seeking to find out the existence of the so-called black holes. The exploration of the black holes tops a list of our robotic mission because this is an area of focus for the space exploration that has been debated over and over because there is the uncertainty looming that the black holes may one day consume the objects surrounding the sun, including our own Earth. The take-off of any robotic mission to the outer space is always a fascinating scene as presented in the fictional movies are as witnessed by the space exploration crew. In this mission, it was business as usual as the spacecraft was taking off the ground. In the first place, there was a countdown and after the time would elapse, it was time for the kinetic rocket to propel into the air and embark on the robotic mission. The scene was scary with a scene of bright-orange flame flaring out, filling the entire region with dust and flame. As the crew looked down, the ground seemed to be rushing away, and as they went further, the ground now looked like a coastline and eventually turned into a cloudscape. However, the crew had the opportunity to view the rockets take-off from the computer screens, and they would see a fast-paced rocket blasting through the atmosphere and penetrating into the deeper horizon of the outer space. The first sight that greeted the crew was the Earths arc, and this was immediately recognisable to every crew member. As the countdown began, sixty seconds after the take-off would mark the separation of the solid-fuel boosters that fell away leaving steams of smokes and off the rocket accelerated into space. Nevertheless, as the spacecraft left the Earth and propelled into the outer space, the crew members had that fearful and scary feeling that every person visiting the unknown space destinations would have had. In some instances, space travellers have revealed that some of these experiences are magical while others admitted to having experienced prosaic feelings (Bagdigian, Carrasquillo, Metcalf & Peterson, 2012). Sometimes, the journey feels crowded while to some extent; it is uncomfortable. Despite the perceived challenges and the dangers the crew members were determined to fulfil their mission; having a fast glance at the earths photosphere but after exploring the great moon, Mars and other principal space objects or the elements defining the universe. A low humming sound starts in the background and this is an indication that the spacecraft is ready to take off for the mission. However, being a robotic mission, every crew member is rest assured of safety from the highly sophisticated and seemingly secure spacecraft that is also controlled from the workstation. Our work as the crew members is to take the necessary information with us, noting the unusual features in our super-computers and in collaboration with the stationed members, we are reporting on the progress of the journey. Still, the spacecraft with its robotic features can send the much-needed information to the stationed crew members and they will use the information to warm us of the dangers of space objects that may hit the craft and as such, expose us to the dangers or destruction (Bagdigian, Carrasquillo, Metcalf & Peterson, 2012). To sum up, one can only describe this mission as fully prepared and safety of every crew member taken into consideration. However, as the stale smoke and dust engulfed the screens when the spacecraft takes off, the first sight that quickly comes to mind is the moon rising over the Central Europe (Bagdigian, Carrasquillo, Metcalf & Peterson, 2012). The cities below are all quiet; some subdued under snow and others appear under vast brown backgrounds. As the rocket propels further, the crew is greeted with a first sight of a cool light, and this is easily defined as the icy sphere. Then, there appears the vast mass, a ghostly feature, and this is the battered rock as the earths satellite. The surface characteristics of this rock send the feeling or the impression planets and moons scattered around the sun, all looking like far-scattered archipelagos surrounding the sun (Gao, Sun & Jing, 2014). Within a few miles of the travel into space, the crew is already introduced to the ghostly features of the universe. The team decides to take a close look as the rocket advances further, but the rocket soon nears Mars, the crew takes the necessary details, including the presence of life or existence of life on this planet. On the other hand, the spacecraft is fitted with highly sophisticated computers that record the every detail of the exploration thus the crews work is only to refer to the indications of the screen and report back to the stationed crew confirming the location of the recorded incidents. Soon, the spacecraft accelerates further away from the conspicuous Mars and shooting thirty years into future; the team descends to the Apollo strata archives. Here, there is much opportunity to take the picture of the moon; in fact, it is the exclusive picture of the three-quarter moon. The picture of the moon sends a reminder of the 1970s mission to the moon (Gao, Sun & Jing, 2014). The crew is treated the ravaged face of the moon, showing the tactile gradations of the moons surface texture. The great craters of the moon are edging towards its terminator, and this displays the migratory line separating day and light. The experience can be described as amazing for the crew. The moon is a perfect experience for every crew member as the image of the moon shows the two mares or the seas all arraigned on the left side and this, one understands, are the two hemispheres of the moon always visible from the Earth. The experience with the moon exploration is amazing, but one wonders how long the crew has travelled. There is a major worry crippling down the crew members, and everyone is much concerned about the dangers of the space objects or if the robotic spacecraft is in a great condition to maintain the long-haul journey (Bagdigian, Carrasquillo, Metcalf & Peterson, 2012). Everyone is also concerned about the impacts of this mission to the earth’s climate because of the penetration of the protective sphere, ozone layer that otherwise provides the protection against the extreme conditions. However, these questions are left or meant to be answered later when the crew jets back to earth to analyse how the journey has left out environmental footprints. The spacecraft propels further, with an increased velocity of 25,000 miles an hour. However, this change of speed and direction is a silence procedure only likened to the motion experience of the rockets but the roar and dazzling can be felt outside though the crew members are not able to feel the sounds. Too soon, the crew members escape the earths gravity to what is known as space. Once transcended this region, watching the screens of the spacecraft computers reveals an unfolding universe, where vistas are visible and scattered across space (Bagdigian, Carrasquillo, Metcalf & Peterson, 2012). The vision is also incredible, but, what is more outstanding is that these space exploration events are now more likely to be controlled from a station on the earths surface. In this regard, the crew channels back their exploration procedures to the local offices where through the use of remote control, it is possible to view and explore some parts of the universe that are not possible to explore. For instance, the spacecraft cannot go beyond the photosphere when trying to explore the moon because the conditions will not be conducive given the extreme temperatures capable of burning the crew alive or even melting the entire spacecraft (Lilenstern & Bornarel, 2005). At this point, the exploration of space is entirely left to the advancement in technology since remote-controlled exploration enabled the mission to extend the boundaries. The implication is that the scarabaeoid shells, fitted with scanners and scopes and because they have solar-powered cells as well as radioisotope generators, there is an opportunity to surpass the human knowledge when exploring the universe (Bagdigian, Carrasquillo, Metcalf & Peterson, 2012). These tools provided the necessary measurements to identify the objects beyond the reach of the spacecraft and as such, it was possible to visualise the black-holes from the computer system of fitted in the spacecraft. However, an imminent danger started crippling the through the crew members. It was evident that as the rocket propelled further into the universe, the communication hitches started becoming more and more common. In some instances, loss of communication during space exploration has been attributed to many issues or problems where for example, failure of the spacecraft batteries has resulted in serious communication failures (Bagdigian, Carrasquillo, Metcalf & Peterson, 2012. At one point, almost close to five minutes, the crew members could not have a clear communication with the stationed members. For instance, if a spacecraft experiences a battery failure, it goes through a series of day-night thermal cycles, and this may render it inoperable. Therefore, the crew members had too much to worry about. As the rocket propelled further and further into space, it offered the view or the favourable distance to view the sun, and this was enabled through the remote control actions of the stationed crew members. At first, through the computer screens, images of many stars appeared alongside the seemingly red-glowing image of the sun. A closer look revealed sparkling effects coming from the sun’s surface and these could be explained as the thermal reaction taking place on the earths surface to produce heat and light. Closer to the sun, the crew members were exposed to more danger because of the searing heat and the possibility of the meteors, dark spots/sink holes, sub-storms affecting the spacecraft (Bagdigian, Carrasquillo, Metcalf & Peterson, 2012). As such, various terms can explain the experiences and dangers exposed to the crew members. Magnetic Storms and substorms: The Magnetic storms and substorms are some of the terrestrial disturbances that are confronted during the exploration of space. In particular, they are the many terrestrial disturbances as a result of the rapid changes occurring in the earths surface or simply the precipitation of the auroras when there is high-speed blast of the solar wind (Nishitani & Teramoto, 2012). As such, these magnetic storms have various effects on earth including the disturbance of radio communication as they result in blackouts as well as power grid failures. However, the substorms also called the auroral substorms are the most frequent but they are restricted to the sun’s auroral oval regions. Sunspot: these are the dark spots that the crew members could see or view as the dark areas because they were darker than their surroundings. The dark spots are darker than the earths photosphere and as such, include the concentrations of magnetic flux, usually found or occurring within a group or bipolar clusters (Nishitani & Teramoto, 2012). During the exploration of the sun, through the robotic mission, the crew viewed the sunspots as the dark areas because they are cooler compared to the surrounding photosphere. On the other hand, darker and larger sunspots seemed to be surrounded by totally unexplainable penumbrae and the dark centres, as the crew searched through the computer’s database, were the umbrae. At the temperatures of around 6, 380 C, the crew members were at a risk of melting or burning alive if the sunspots had increased in numbers due to the sun’s activities (Nishitani & Teramoto, 2012). Although sunspots have lower temperatures than the rest of the sun’s regions, they are capable shining brighter; ten times brighter than the moon. Frequent auroras and sudden power blackouts are some of the effects of the increased magnetic activities within the sun (Nishitani & Teramoto, 2012). However, one of the scariest effects of the sunspots was the possibility of affecting the delicate electronics within spacecraft, and the crew members were afraid of the dangerous commands that they would give the satellite. The avoid the sun outbursts, the crew members sought shelter in safer areas of the spacecraft because the high energy radiation that comes with the geomagnetic storm has the potential of destroying human body cells. Photosphere: A journey to explore the sun also leads to the exploration of the photosphere amidst the dangers or risks it brings about to the crew members (Lilenstern & Bornarel, 2005). In particular, the region is what the crew members could see as the sun’s visible surface. In the region, the sun’s energy escapes and streams into its atmosphere, going beyond to reach the earth. The region contains most of the dark sunspots hence it was a risky encounter for the crew members. From this region, the crew could visualise the sunspots and black holes. However, it was not clear whether the dreaded black holes were within the earth’s orbit to pose the danger and threat of being swallowed into one of the dangerous holes (Lilenstern & Bornarel, 2005). Atmospheric drag: The sun is divided into various subsections, but the ionosphere is the region whose activities have effects on the spacecraft activities and even the activities taking place down on Earth (Lilenstern & Bornarel, 2005). As such, the crew members were subjected to numerous atmospheric disturbances, especially from the ionosphere that has two regions of the D-region (30­60 miles), ­region (55­100 miles), and the F-region divided into the F1 and F2 regions respectively (Lilenstern & Bornarel, 2005). Although the D-region contains few electrons, it presented communication problems since it affects AM radio transmissions and this explains the frequent communication hitches experienced during the robotic mission. Inclination: as the distance between the orbital distance of the spacecraft and its primary equator (Duchek, Abrams, Infeld, Jolly, Drews & Hopkins, 2015). In this regard, this inclination was important as the stationed crew members used remote controls to change the spacecraft’s inclination angle so that it would move successfully around the universe, orbiting different planetary objects and moving as far as or closer to the sun. During the exploration, it was possible to read out the inclination angles where the 90 degrees indicated that the spacecraft was orbiting a polar orbit while 180 degrees reported that the spacecraft had reached equatorial orbit. Periapsis: This is defined as the point in the orbit of a universe object close to its primary (Duchek, Abrams, Infeld, Jolly, Drews & Hopkins, 2015). In this case, it was necessary to find out the spacecraft’s angular distance between its ascending node and the point and the periapsis point. In this case, maintaining the periapsis was important as the spacecraft neared the sun because care or precautions were taken to ensure that the plane was not in danger of extreme heating or care was being taken to ensure that there were no communication hitches. Planetary Characteristics Venus: as the journey continued into earths surface, a looming danger was the extreme planetary characteristics of the planet Venus. However, the robotic mission was only able to explore the features of Venus using spacecraft computer system that was also remotely controlled by the stationed crew. In particular, Venus presented the 462 degrees danger, hot enough to melt the entire spacecraft and cook the on-boarders. The crew members also escaped the dangers of being exposed to 97% carbon from Venus as the dominant characteristic of Venus planet but still, the movement of the spacecraft was restricted within Mercury (Borucki et al., 2011). Atmosphere: Every planet has its unique atmospheric characteristics, and as the spacecraft ejected from the earth, it transcended through the earths atmosphere, containing the 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen and some traces of argon, CO2 and other gases (Borucki et al., 2011). As the crew moved further into the atmosphere, there was the noticeable thinning or air, roughly 100 miles above the earths surface and this made it possible for the spacecraft to move through smoothly because there was little or no air resistance. Planetary-Mass object: Another looming danger for the space crew members was the risk of bumping into planetary objects (Borucki et al., 2011). To give a description, these are just celestial objects whose mass may be compatible or fall in the range of planets but not enough to offer them the hydrostatic equilibrium or the possibility of being surrounded within own gravity. In this case, the journey risks bumping encounter with the dwarf planets that could have collided with the spacecraft. However, the stationed crew members offered warnings in time, and the warnings helped in changing the direction of the movement to safer routes. Satelite Planets When defining planets, larger satellites have also been considered or classified as planets though they are roaming freely in the universe and pose danger to the navigating spacecraft (Borucki et al., 2011). In this regard, there were numerous encounters with such planets but through the care and precautions from the stationed crew, they crew dodged falling victims to collision with satellite planets, like Tinan and Galilean moons of the Jupiter. Conclusion In summary, the robotic mission to explore sunspots or dark spots was aimed at identifying the characteristics of the sun’s photosphere that makes it influence the climate and weather conditions on the earth’s atmosphere. In particular, the dark or the sunspots represents some of the outburst actions of the sun that disturb communication, interferes with power grids as evident from the manner in which they were posing great disturbance effect on the spacecraft. On the other hand, the space robotic mission shows how humanity has advanced in its quest to explore the outer space using remote controlled robotic spacecraft that are operated by both the on-boarders and the stationed crew members from a local office on earth. References Sekii, T., Appourchaux, T., Fleck, B., & Turck-Chièze, S. (2015). Future Mission Concepts for Helioseismology. Space Science Reviews, 1-18. Lilenstern, J. & Bornarel, J. (2005). Space Weather, Environment and Societies. Springer Science & Business Media. Bagdigian, R. M., Carrasquillo, R. L., Metcalf, J., & Peterson, L. (2012). National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Environmental Control and Life Support (ECLS) Capability Roadmap Development for Exploration. Duchek, M., Abrams, J., Infeld, S., Jolly, S., Drews, M., & Hopkins, J. (2015). Solar electric propulsion orbital debris ferry, vehicle concept and reference mission. Acta Astronautica, 116, 175-185. Borucki, W. J., Koch, D. G., Basri, G., Batalha, N., Brown, T. M., Bryson, S. T., ... & Kulesa, C. (2011). Characteristics of planetary candidates observed by Kepler. II. Analysis of the first four months of data. The Astrophysical Journal, 736(1), 19. Nishitani, N., & Teramoto, M. (2012, December). Dynamics of Sub Auroral Polarization Streams Observed by the SuperDARN Hokkaido Radar During Large Geomagnetic Storms. In AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts (Vol. 1, p. 2283). Gao, Y. M., Sun, W. J., & Jing, W. B. (2014, October). Research on Integrated Simulation of Space Robot Mission. In Applied Mechanics and Materials 608, 56-60). Read More